The Incident of The Plums
by MagicByMerlin
Summary: Poor Arthur has had a row with his father and Merlin tries to cheer him up with a bit of innocent pranking...


Merlin rapped his knuckles on Arthur's door and waited for a reply whilst juggling the prince's breakfast between his hands, the loaf of bread sliding dangerously close to the edge of the plate.

"What?" Arthur's voice asked irritably.

Merlin knocked the loaf back to the centre of the plate and somehow managed to turn the door handle with his chin and stumbled in, the goblet of wine wobbling precariously.

Arthur was slouched in a chair, poking the fire viciously.

"Good morning." Merlin said cheerily and set the breakfast plates and trays on the table.

"Why? What's good about it?" Arthur huffed and stabbed at a charred log savagely.

"The sun is shinning." Merlin pointed out brightly.

As he said it the sky suddenly darkened and it began to rain, beads of water sliding down the outside of the window.

Arthur gave him an "I'm going to bite your head off" sort of look and went back to attacking the fire, muttering something under his breath.

"You alright?" Merlin asked cautiously.

"No."

"Why."

"You know yesterday, when I tripped over that bucket that someone had left in the courtroom?"

"Yeah."

"And then knocked over Lady Wolferstan."

"Yeah."

"My father was proper angry about it all. And so was she. Apparently wanted compensation for the wine I spilt on her dress."

"And?"

"My father was grilling me about it last night."

Merlin knew there was a rift between Uther and Arthur and they often fell out over a lot of things that they didn't agree over. It seemed the incident with the bucket had caused that rift to open again. Of course he wasn't about to say that he was the one responsible for the bucket and had forgotten to take it away when he had left it there and especially not now as Arthur looked ready to kill. But Merlin did feel obliged to make it up to him, even if he didn't admit it was him who left the bucket there.

Looking at Arthur know he looked upset, but trying to cover it up with anger as he besieged the fire. The poor guy obviously needed cheering up.

Merlin suddenly had a mutinous thought.

Maybe Arthur could get his own back on the king. If only in a small and childish way it would cheer him up at the very least. Wouldn't it?

Merlin decided to risk the wrath. He was in that sort of mood today.

"I wouldn't blame you if you wanted a little vengeance…" Merlin said slyly.

"Why? What did you have in mind?" Arthur, for the first time that day, showed a flicker of interest.

"Well…" Merlin said, trailing off and catching a glance of the bowl of fruit on the table.

__

They were on the roof of one of the guardhouses that was on the end of one of the castles walls. The rain had lessened and was only drizzling ever so slightly.

Arthur threw and caught one of the plums they were both armed with into the air.

"You ready?" Merlin asked, taking a bite out of one of his own velvety purple plums.

"Are you? You'll be the one who gets thrown in the stocks if we're caught!"

"It'll be worth it!"

"Granted Morgana can pull it off."

"Of course she can."

"Where is she then?"

"How should I know?" Merlin retorted.

"We are so dead if we're caught."

"Stop moaning! Here she comes."

They scrambled behind the other side of the roof's slope and peered over the edge at Morgana who had just appeared with Uther from the gate beneath the guardhouse that came from one of the many halls of Camelot.

"But why, Morgana?" They heard Uther asked in confusion at being dragged from his breakfast and warm room.

"Just a nice morning walk. Get some fresh air, all that sort of thing. Would you look at that view?" Morgana exclaimed, pulling Uther along.

"What view? It's only the town! I see it everyday!" Uther threw up his arms in bafflement.

"Now!" Merlin hissed and took another chunk out of the plum, as did Arthur.

They dug out the stones out with their teeth and nodded to each other before taking aim at the king.

"Putoo!" Was the noise Arthur made as he shot the plum stone out of his mouth at his father.

The wrinkly stone sailed through the air for a moment before flying onto the back of the kings neck and dropping to the floor.

"What was that?" Uther whipped round, rubbing the back of his neck and spinning in circles, whilst Morgana desperately trying not to laugh.

Arthur grinned and Merlin spat out his own stone shaped missile, which hit Uther's head and skimmed away down the hill towards the town.

Uther furiously glanced all around for the source of the strange bombs and happened to look up to the top of the guardhouse and saw two heads, one blonde haired and the other black.

It was his son's manservant and his son himself, both grinning gleefully and laughing, not yet noticing that he had seen them.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Uther fumed, seething with fury.

Arthur and Merlin jolted from their delirious laughter and looked down at him in horror.

"Run!" Arthur yelped and slid down the roof, bumping over the tiles and landing on the turret sidewalk below, Merlin hot on his heels.

"We shall talk of this later." Uther growled to Morgana, who only stifled a giggle, before running back to the door and ordering his guards to catch his attackers.


End file.
